Sex

Knew that title would get ya! Haha! Read on...It was an interesting day at work today-- half the team was out on annual leave for one reason or another, so it was just myself and two physios trying to manage the whole unit caseload.

For the first time as on OT, I addressed the subject of sexuality today. We had a case conference with a patient (who is going home Dec 21) and his spouse to discuss the details of his discharge. He is 57, and I believe she's 10 years younger, and by the time we'd come to the end of our conference, I just felt like I had to bring it up. For those of you non-OTs, although we aren't really told how to do it, it is stressed as part of our OT training that since we focus on holistic treatment, we should always be aware of how important sexuality is. Even more so because no other rehab professional will address it with the patient. And when you think about it, it's true, if everyone on a rehab team ignores such a major issue as sexuality, your patient may go home with lots of questions and no answers, because it wasn't something they felt comfortable bringing up. So it's our job as OTs to break the ice, and make it ok for them to ask questions. I have not had to figure out how to do this until now, as I've dealt mainly with elderly, frail patients. But today, when everything else had been said, I told M and his wife that although I'm not an expert, I'd be happy to provide information and resources if they had questions about their intimate life with each other, considering M's post-stroke deficits...and as I said this, I could feel myself going bright red. Which they and Bettina, the physio, thought was hysterical. This couple is very down-to-earth, very straightforward, and I don't know why I flushed as I was speaking, they were the perfect people to help me start figuring out how to address the subject. But on the other hand, to illustrate my earlier point, even being such a "hip" couple, they had not brought up the subject with anyone on the team, so it really is my/our responsibility to open the lines of communication so that people know they can talk about it or ask questions if they want. I just have to figure out how to have the conversation on a clinical, professional level, so that my face doesn't keep giving away the fact that I feel like I'm pushing my boundaries!